Willman inks deal with A's

Oshkosh West's Tyler Willman fires a pitch against Oshkosh North in the fifth inning of a Fox Valley Association conference game at Peppler Field. West won 5-4 in the eighth inning. Oshkosh Northwestern Photo by Shu-Ling Zhou(Photo: Oshkosh Northwestern photo by Shu-Ling Zhou)Buy Photo

Tyler Willman has been looking to buy an SUV or a Crossover for the past few months.

After signing his first professional baseball contract Sunday with the Oakland A's, it won't be long until he finds his new ride.

A right-handed pitcher from Western Illinois University and Oshkosh West high school, Willman was picked in the 12th round by Oakland with the 372nd pick in the 2014 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on June 7.

Willman will head to Phoenix today for a player evaluation over the next week or so before beginning his first assignment with his new club.

"It's a dream come true. This has been my dream since I was a little kid and to finally have it fulfilled is a surreal feeling," Willman said on Saturday. "I've been away from baseball for about three weeks now and I'm ready to jump back in there and start throwing in 100 degree heat every day."

He becomes the fourth player drafted from Oshkosh West high school, and the first since Chris Roberts in 2006.

Willman recently finished his junior year with the Fighting Leathernecks as the No. 1 pitcher in the rotation. The 6-foot-6, 190 pound Willman appeared in 16 games, including a team-high 14 starts, and threw 83 2/3 innings. He struck out 63 batters and finished with a 3.66 ERA, becoming the first Western Illinois pitcher to be named to the First Team All-League in the Summit Conference since 2006.

Still, prior to his junior season he wasn't sure if professional baseball was in the cards.

As a freshman he rarely saw action, appearing in seven games and making two starts. His sophomore year saw vast improvement, earning a spot in the starting rotation and making 10 starts and leading the team with 64 strikeouts. He also led the Summit Conference with a 9.24 K's per game average.

As his junior season began and Willman took the reins as the ace on the staff, scouts started to fill the bleachers, and he and his family soon realized college wouldn't be the last stop in Tyler's pitching career.

"It wasn't until this year, when he was a No. 2 starter and then he got moved to No. 1 and all the scouts started coming to his games and its like 'You have to be kidding me. This could really happen,'" Tyler's father, Mark, said. "It's really hard to comprehend because I never played (baseball) competitively, and to see it happen (for Tyler) is a dream come true for all of us."

In the weeks leading up to the draft, Willman had heard through his draft advisors as well as scouts from a number of different organizations that his name would be called sometime between rounds 5-10.

The first two rounds of the draft took place Thursday and rounds 3-10 Friday, so Willman figured he'd know where he was going before the weekend.

After the 10th round finished up Friday night and he hadn't heard his name called Willman grew agitated, but figured round 11 first thing Saturday morning would be his time.

When nothing happened in round 11, he had enough.

"I thought I was going to go a little higher than I did, but after the 11th round I'm listening to the draft on the computer and I didn't get drafted, I was so mad I threw my phone on my bed and went outside and sat on my swing," Willman recalled. "All of a sudden my brother runs outside and yells 'Hey Ty you just got drafted by the Oakland A's' and I didn't believe him, but as soon as he said that I got a call from Oakland congratulating me.

"It was like the whole world was lifted right off my shoulders. Right now I'm getting goose bumps just talking about it because it was such a cool experience."

Willman is not sure where Oakland sees him as a fit at the moment, but there have been talks that he will begin as a relief pitcher because of his slender body frame.

Willman will likely be in Phoenix for the next 7-10 days for a physical and evaluations, and afterwards he'll have a much clearer picture of what he will be doing and where he will be doing it.

He may stay in Phoenix, or he could be shipped out to Vermont for Short-Season Single-A baseball in the New York-Penn League.

Regardless of where he starts he gets to continue playing a kids game for a living, something he always believed he could do.

"I always told people I was going to be a professional baseball player, but the older I got the more weird looks I got when I told people that," Willman said. "It's always been my No. 1 goal and there really never was a second choice after being a professional baseball player."